Abstract Detail

Education and Outreach

Köhler, Matias [1], Santos, Estela [2], Brack, Paulo [1].

Native Fruits in Porto Alegre (RS): promoting the biodiversity with a website.

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries, with more than 33,000 angiosperms taxa cataloged. Despite this diversity, most of these plants remain little known to the general public. With some exceptions, the plants used for food and local gardening are basically the same globally known, with exacerbated use of alien plants. In fact, the local flora is poorly known by the non-botanists public. This phenomenon has been related with plant blindness and xenophilia, broadly defined as the inability to recognize and appreciate the plants in one’s own environment and the affection for foreign plants, respectively. This leads us to believe that additional knowledge on the local flora, especially those species useful in food, could be a convenient tool to the community. The state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), the southernmost of the country, presents a significant biodiversity, and the capital Porto Alegre is a good representative of this biodiversity. Our main objective with this work is to provide educational resources to both students and the general public in order to disseminate knowledge about the biodiversity, recognizing the importance and the potential use of the local flora. The initial assessment of native fruits is based on the examination of herbarium data, bibliographic materials and fieldworks. The survey resulted in a list with more than 50 species, from which a sample of 40 were selected to be used on a website. The website contains botanical, ecological and utilitarian information from species as well as photos for illustration and identification. The website has already reached more than twenty thousand views and still continues to be shared in digital media. Future goals of this project involve the recognition and marking of matrix trees distributed in natural areas of the city, being this information available in an interactive virtual map. This information aim to further understand and appreciate the city's natural environments.

Related Links:
Website - Native Frutis in Porto Alegre

1 - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Departamento de Botânica, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Instituto de Biociências, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501- 970, Brazil
2 - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Artes Visuais, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501- 970, Brazil

Keywords:
Education
Biodiversity
Plant Blindness
Native Fruits
Digital Media.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Education and Outreach Poster Section
Location: Exhibit Hall/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 5:30 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PEO003
Abstract ID:553
Candidate for Awards:None